So many people are working on so many biological developments and many result in nothing it seems. I’m pretty sure there is a mountain of developments, biological, technological, chemical, etc. that have potential for so many other uses that are left untapped. Developments that didn’t work out for one intended use, but could possibly be used for something else. There are discoveries from academic labs, companies, and private individual researchers. What if there was a good way to systematically scour these “wastelands” and match them with other uses? It may only be useful for one small community, but it would help.

We need a system. The NIH already has one type of system to find uses for drugs that have failed clinical trials for whatever reason. So, they are attempting to mine that subfield somewhat. Maybe I should look into that, see what they’re doing and see if it can be applied to other fields, if it isn’t already.

I first wrote the preceding blurb 6 years ago. It has just been sitting in the draft folder. I still think about the idea every blue moon and I still think that there may be something to it. In fact, I came across a research paper that was published 4 years I first wrote that draft about that very idea. I’ve only read the abstract so far, but I think it may be one worth revisiting. Check the paper’s information down below.

Yun, S., Song, K., Kim, C., & Lee, S. (2021). From stones to jewellery: Investigating technology opportunities from expired patents. Technovation, 103, 102235.

Featured Photo by Michael Burrows